Post by magnifiscent on Mar 7, 2013 13:12:36 GMT -8
Since we're starting lock down a training time, it might help us to work out exactly what we want to train in - i.e. what sort of doctrine are we going to adopt and practice.
Disclaimer: I am by no means a definitive voice on this subject, but I can start the ball rolling and throw out some suggestions for us to work on.
-----------
Abstract:
Boelcke's Dicta (that's a link) outlines a set of fundamental air maneuvers developed by WWI German fighter ace Oswald Boelcke. Depending on the mechanics of a particular game, these dicta may be applied to a greater or lesser degree, but as general rules of thumb, they are something that every pilot going into combat should be familiar with.
While I am not a WWI German fighter ace, I have some notions that might improve our effectiveness in the air and Boelcke's dicta can be adapted and even expanded upon for our uses.
Dicta Magnifiscent:
1. Fight on your terms; always pit your strengths against your opponent's weakness. Secure the advantage before you engage.
A. Know the field. Understand the situation in the area, both on the ground and in the air. Are you on the leading edge of a zerg? Are there friendly or enemy AA units nearby? Are you outnumbered? How badly? Are there natural features (mountains, archs, rocks, coral) that can be taken advantage of?
B. Performance. Knowing the strengths of your aircraft and those of your foe is crucial. Always make choices that take advantage of your strengths while preventing your opponent from taking advantage of their's. Know the optimal situation for using your own weapons and avoiding your opponent's. *would like to get ATR's help on a document that outlines the strengths and weakness of each aircraft and link to it from here*
C. Surprise. Surprise is often the greatest advantage a pilot can have. Surprise allows you to act before your opponent, to choose your most opportune moment to strike, to mitigate their ability to defend themselves, or all of these things. Always do your utmost to preserve the element of surprise.
D. Positioning The absolute best position for an attack is from above and behind your opponent. If possible, seek this position at all times. Head-to-head passes are for movies.
2. Always continue with an attack you have begun.
This means - Once you start fighting, you stay in the fight. Do not run. Turning your back on your opponent gives them prime positioning and takes away your ability to return fire. Stay in the fight and trust your wingman to help you if you are in trouble.
This does not mean - Chasing your opponent out of your area of operation, into enemy flak, towards the enemy warp gate. Chasing a little is ok if you can get the kill before they leave the area of engagement. Chasing any further is a fantastic way to die - even if it works SOMETIMES, it is a bad decision EVERY TIME.
3. Open fire only at optimal range and only when you are sure to hit.
Aim carefully, wait for the clean shot and the sure hit. Don't snap off rounds during a turn. Wasting ammunition will leave you dry or reloading at the worst possible moment. Don't snap off rounds at extreme range - this alerts your enemy and ruins your surprise. Wait until you can put your entire magazine into them before they even know it has happened.
4. Always keep an eye on your opponent, don't fall for silly tricks.
Difficult to practice and dangerous to ignore. Keep track of your enemy. Losing sight of where he is or is going is a great way to give him the advantage. Do your best to keep track of the enemy and communicate with your wing man if you lose him. Do not fall for common tactics - reavers flying backward, chasing through a bridge or under a rocky arch, leading you over AA - fly smart and anticipate these moves so that you can defeat them with ease.
5. Always seek to gain the enemies' rear.
Attacking from behind gives you the best chance to hit while making it impossible for your target to hit you - this is the best of all situations.
6. If your opponent is diving on you, fly to meet him rather than trying to turn around him.
This is NOT a head-on pass. If your opponent is in a position of advantage and diving at you, your best hope is to close the distance quickly while avoiding giving him your tail. This means flying to meet him and doing it FAST. Don't try to point your weapon at them, simply limit the time they have to fire at you by eliminating the distance between you. Once you pass each other now YOU are above - and if he's a slow learner - behind your target. This is Prime Position. You have taken the advantage and are free to press the attack or even disengage.
7. If operating over enemy-held ground, always know the path to safety.
You will often find yourself over hostile territory (especially in TxR). Knowing which way is safe to run is important - see 1.A. above. Knowing where the closest place to land and repair or rearm is, what direction it is in, and the best way to get there is crucial to your ability to operate effectively on the front lines of the fighting.
Always mark the closest safe resupply site with your personal waypoint. Always be aware of where the enemy AA is and avoid flying over it if at all possible. Do your best to maintain an awareness of the situation in any territory between your position and safety - do not fly over a facility that has recently come under attack if it can be avoided.
8. Fight together, stay out of each other's way.
Never fly alone, even if there are several of you doing it. Support each other. Communicate intentions, watch each other's back, help each other out if in trouble, work as a cohesive unit. Alone your skill is all that can protect you and will never be enough. Even the best pilots will eventually be dragged down by sheer numbers. Teamwork and support goes a long way towards mitigating sheer numerical superiority.
Stay out of each other's way. Every single pilot has been involved in a mid-air collision. This is wasteful, stupid, and completely avoidable. It does not take 6 mosquitoes to bring down a single reaver or scythe. It is an absolute waste for 6 mosquitoes to focus on a single enemy and leave the others to their own devices. 1 target gets 1 mosquito pair*. Spread yourselves out, do not chase points. This is the hardest thing for most pilots to do - lay off the chase. Even if you think you're better than the person already engaged, LAY OFF. Even if you are bored out your mind, LAY OFF. If the person engaged can't get the job done, their wingman will help them. If the wingman can't handle it, they will ask for help. Until that point, give them space. Otherwise you are likely to find yourself apologizing to the friendly you just ran into while you sit at the closest air tower watching your timer count down.
-----------------
*A word on flying with a wing man -
Part of never flying alone is flying WITH a wingman. This is a person dedicated to supporting the lead plane by hanging a little back and providing spotting help during turning fights, watching the lead's back or clearing his tail if he becomes engaged by another enemy, or OCCASIONALLY stepping in to help finish off a kill. It is NOT the wing man's duty to directly engage the same enemy as the lead; you are not "focusing fire." Two planes engaged with the same target are vulnerable from behind and will inevitably collide during the engagement or get into each other's line of fire. Wing men SUPPORT and PROTECT. Occasionally, the lead plane will be too close to effectively continue to engage; in these instances the lead will ask the wingman to step in and they will TRADE JOBS. There should always be a single lead and a wingman working as a pair.
-----------------
A final few words:
Effective flying is not an action packed dogfight flying through the clouds with explosions and gunfire all around. Effective flying is actually as boring as possible - you are surprising your enemies, killing them in seconds, and only about half of the planes are actually getting kills. If things get exciting, there is something wrong.
This is something that a lot of people have a hard time with - even dedicated pilots like myself. Lead pilots will get kills - wing men get assists or nothing, but the wing men are BY FAR the more important element of the pair. Without support, single planes go out in spectacular blazes of fire that are ultimately meaningless.
The true measure of success is not our K/D - it is not how many planes or tanks we destroy. Our success is measured by how well we protect our ground forces and how we dominate an area of sky.
Kills mean NOTHING. Kills are a means to an end. That end is CONTROL. Do not chase kills and waste yourself. A fleeing enemy is just as good as a dead one - they are not hurting our troops. Do not chase easy ground kills to pump your stats only to leave our tanks flanked and taking fire.
Skywatch is, by far, the most support focused of all the specialty squads. It requires discipline to be effective in the air, not just reflexes and a keen eye. It is also, in my opinion, the most rewarding specialty in the game. We are angels on high, granting victory to our friends and ensuring defeat for our foes.
Disclaimer: I am by no means a definitive voice on this subject, but I can start the ball rolling and throw out some suggestions for us to work on.
-----------
Abstract:
Boelcke's Dicta (that's a link) outlines a set of fundamental air maneuvers developed by WWI German fighter ace Oswald Boelcke. Depending on the mechanics of a particular game, these dicta may be applied to a greater or lesser degree, but as general rules of thumb, they are something that every pilot going into combat should be familiar with.
While I am not a WWI German fighter ace, I have some notions that might improve our effectiveness in the air and Boelcke's dicta can be adapted and even expanded upon for our uses.
Dicta Magnifiscent:
1. Fight on your terms; always pit your strengths against your opponent's weakness. Secure the advantage before you engage.
A. Know the field. Understand the situation in the area, both on the ground and in the air. Are you on the leading edge of a zerg? Are there friendly or enemy AA units nearby? Are you outnumbered? How badly? Are there natural features (mountains, archs, rocks, coral) that can be taken advantage of?
B. Performance. Knowing the strengths of your aircraft and those of your foe is crucial. Always make choices that take advantage of your strengths while preventing your opponent from taking advantage of their's. Know the optimal situation for using your own weapons and avoiding your opponent's. *would like to get ATR's help on a document that outlines the strengths and weakness of each aircraft and link to it from here*
C. Surprise. Surprise is often the greatest advantage a pilot can have. Surprise allows you to act before your opponent, to choose your most opportune moment to strike, to mitigate their ability to defend themselves, or all of these things. Always do your utmost to preserve the element of surprise.
D. Positioning The absolute best position for an attack is from above and behind your opponent. If possible, seek this position at all times. Head-to-head passes are for movies.
2. Always continue with an attack you have begun.
This means - Once you start fighting, you stay in the fight. Do not run. Turning your back on your opponent gives them prime positioning and takes away your ability to return fire. Stay in the fight and trust your wingman to help you if you are in trouble.
This does not mean - Chasing your opponent out of your area of operation, into enemy flak, towards the enemy warp gate. Chasing a little is ok if you can get the kill before they leave the area of engagement. Chasing any further is a fantastic way to die - even if it works SOMETIMES, it is a bad decision EVERY TIME.
3. Open fire only at optimal range and only when you are sure to hit.
Aim carefully, wait for the clean shot and the sure hit. Don't snap off rounds during a turn. Wasting ammunition will leave you dry or reloading at the worst possible moment. Don't snap off rounds at extreme range - this alerts your enemy and ruins your surprise. Wait until you can put your entire magazine into them before they even know it has happened.
4. Always keep an eye on your opponent, don't fall for silly tricks.
Difficult to practice and dangerous to ignore. Keep track of your enemy. Losing sight of where he is or is going is a great way to give him the advantage. Do your best to keep track of the enemy and communicate with your wing man if you lose him. Do not fall for common tactics - reavers flying backward, chasing through a bridge or under a rocky arch, leading you over AA - fly smart and anticipate these moves so that you can defeat them with ease.
5. Always seek to gain the enemies' rear.
- Avoid attacking side-on; aiming is difficult to impossible and keeping your opponent off your tail even more so.
- Avoid attacking head-on; you are as likely to take damage as your opponent is. Head-on passes are for movie stars. Killers do it from behind.
Attacking from behind gives you the best chance to hit while making it impossible for your target to hit you - this is the best of all situations.
6. If your opponent is diving on you, fly to meet him rather than trying to turn around him.
This is NOT a head-on pass. If your opponent is in a position of advantage and diving at you, your best hope is to close the distance quickly while avoiding giving him your tail. This means flying to meet him and doing it FAST. Don't try to point your weapon at them, simply limit the time they have to fire at you by eliminating the distance between you. Once you pass each other now YOU are above - and if he's a slow learner - behind your target. This is Prime Position. You have taken the advantage and are free to press the attack or even disengage.
7. If operating over enemy-held ground, always know the path to safety.
You will often find yourself over hostile territory (especially in TxR). Knowing which way is safe to run is important - see 1.A. above. Knowing where the closest place to land and repair or rearm is, what direction it is in, and the best way to get there is crucial to your ability to operate effectively on the front lines of the fighting.
Always mark the closest safe resupply site with your personal waypoint. Always be aware of where the enemy AA is and avoid flying over it if at all possible. Do your best to maintain an awareness of the situation in any territory between your position and safety - do not fly over a facility that has recently come under attack if it can be avoided.
8. Fight together, stay out of each other's way.
Never fly alone, even if there are several of you doing it. Support each other. Communicate intentions, watch each other's back, help each other out if in trouble, work as a cohesive unit. Alone your skill is all that can protect you and will never be enough. Even the best pilots will eventually be dragged down by sheer numbers. Teamwork and support goes a long way towards mitigating sheer numerical superiority.
Stay out of each other's way. Every single pilot has been involved in a mid-air collision. This is wasteful, stupid, and completely avoidable. It does not take 6 mosquitoes to bring down a single reaver or scythe. It is an absolute waste for 6 mosquitoes to focus on a single enemy and leave the others to their own devices. 1 target gets 1 mosquito pair*. Spread yourselves out, do not chase points. This is the hardest thing for most pilots to do - lay off the chase. Even if you think you're better than the person already engaged, LAY OFF. Even if you are bored out your mind, LAY OFF. If the person engaged can't get the job done, their wingman will help them. If the wingman can't handle it, they will ask for help. Until that point, give them space. Otherwise you are likely to find yourself apologizing to the friendly you just ran into while you sit at the closest air tower watching your timer count down.
-----------------
*A word on flying with a wing man -
Part of never flying alone is flying WITH a wingman. This is a person dedicated to supporting the lead plane by hanging a little back and providing spotting help during turning fights, watching the lead's back or clearing his tail if he becomes engaged by another enemy, or OCCASIONALLY stepping in to help finish off a kill. It is NOT the wing man's duty to directly engage the same enemy as the lead; you are not "focusing fire." Two planes engaged with the same target are vulnerable from behind and will inevitably collide during the engagement or get into each other's line of fire. Wing men SUPPORT and PROTECT. Occasionally, the lead plane will be too close to effectively continue to engage; in these instances the lead will ask the wingman to step in and they will TRADE JOBS. There should always be a single lead and a wingman working as a pair.
-----------------
A final few words:
Effective flying is not an action packed dogfight flying through the clouds with explosions and gunfire all around. Effective flying is actually as boring as possible - you are surprising your enemies, killing them in seconds, and only about half of the planes are actually getting kills. If things get exciting, there is something wrong.
This is something that a lot of people have a hard time with - even dedicated pilots like myself. Lead pilots will get kills - wing men get assists or nothing, but the wing men are BY FAR the more important element of the pair. Without support, single planes go out in spectacular blazes of fire that are ultimately meaningless.
The true measure of success is not our K/D - it is not how many planes or tanks we destroy. Our success is measured by how well we protect our ground forces and how we dominate an area of sky.
Kills mean NOTHING. Kills are a means to an end. That end is CONTROL. Do not chase kills and waste yourself. A fleeing enemy is just as good as a dead one - they are not hurting our troops. Do not chase easy ground kills to pump your stats only to leave our tanks flanked and taking fire.
Skywatch is, by far, the most support focused of all the specialty squads. It requires discipline to be effective in the air, not just reflexes and a keen eye. It is also, in my opinion, the most rewarding specialty in the game. We are angels on high, granting victory to our friends and ensuring defeat for our foes.
